I wanted to say that my son has said the exact same things about his brain making him do things. He also had/has trouble with writing. Like you, I was able to get my son to write plenty when the topic was focused on his interests (Sonic the Hedgehog!), but could not get him to write much of anything when the topic was not of his choosing. I never had any luck finding a teacher that was willing to change his work to suit his interests.
He's a little older now (nearly 10) and is getting better with impulse control, which I contribute to him getting more mature. His handwriting has also improved but he still struggles a lot with pencil and paper tasks in school.
I wanted to comment on one part of your post that stood out to me. You said,
Quote:
I talked to his teacher myself, and she's going to send home whatever assignments he doesn't do in school. He'll do them at home, with my working right with him, and won't be allowed to use the computer until he does. This will, I think, be sufficient motivation...but it doesn't address the real problem.
I would caution you about going down that path unless you want to stay on it for an indefinite amount of time. It might be better to have the school give your son smaller or modified assignments, sentence starters, have a scribe, assistive technology or other accommodations.
My son does really well on schoolwork and homework with someone sitting next to him (and helping him when needed). The problem with this is that after a while of it he flat out refused to do anything in school because he preferred to take it all home and do it next to me (because, at 7 he didn't have someone at school that would sit with him). I got really tired of spending my evenings sitting next to him and not a whole lot else. How was school anything but daycare if he wasn't doing anything while he was there? Our homework sessions could last hours! The IEP team referred to it as learned helplessness.
Even today, we're nearing the end of 4th grade, and he needs an aid to sit with him to keep him on-task for math or any kind of assignment that involves writing or copying. He would still prefer to take work home and do it with me, and the teachers are cool with that because then they don't have to spend a lot of time continuously prompting him to start or finish his work. I finally put my foot down. I asked that he do less work in class (modified assignments) and only the homework that is assigned to every student, so I can have time to cook, clean, take him to sports or music lessons, spend time with friends/family. It has taken a lot of pressure off of both of us.
23 May 2011, 4:45 pm
